


Always Forgiven

by Generouslyinnercheesecake



Series: Commish [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Co-leaders, Cute, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of Sex, Romance, SFW tho, Some Humor, Teen Titans - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 08:00:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25599952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Generouslyinnercheesecake/pseuds/Generouslyinnercheesecake
Summary: Damian and Mar’i are co-leaders of the Teen Titans, but some things don’t go right.Requested by @ae-in/@raeofthewest on Tumblr!
Relationships: Mar'i Grayson/Damian Wayne
Series: Commish [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1855459
Comments: 8
Kudos: 46





	Always Forgiven

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I’m here with a commish from a good friend! Go and check out @ae-in/@raeofthewest on Tumblr, as they were kind enough to request this!
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING
> 
> See yall at the bottom!

Damian was, admittedly, not a people-person. He liked structure, consistency, and most importantly, being respected.

So, one day, after a mission with the Titans, he had hated himself when his teammates began yelling at him.

“Why would you abandon us, asshole?” Lian demanded, her tone as sharp and vicious as the point of her arrows. “I thought you were co-leader!”

Damian barely stopped himself from flinching. He had only made the most logical decision he could. One his Father would’ve made.

( _The mission was supposed to be covert. In and out. Take information from a corrupt science facility to finally convict them of embezzling donations from local museums and leave. However, when Damian was three floors deep in the facility hacking into the computers, he turned off his comm. due to their position being compromised._

_The whole team had barely made it out in time._ )

His reply, however, was less nuanced than his own thoughts. “I put the mission before the people,” he recited. “You should all know that this career is not risk-free.”

Mar’i, who was standing at his side this entire time, listening, tilted her head annoyedly “Dami-“

“Meeting adjourned,” her boyfriend interrupted her, and Mar’i knew her annoyance was about to spill over onto him.

“You can’t just end the meeting when it isn’t going your way!” Lian yelled, face red with fury. “You turned your comm. off while your teammates were fending for themselves in a high-security facility! _Fuck. You!_ ”

Damian felt his lip twinge in self-hatred, but knew he could not back down. That’s not what Robin should do. “I did what the mission required-“

“Robin!” Mar’i interrupted. She stared at him when he finally turned to face her, then looked at her teammates. “Go ahead, guys. Me and Dami will talk about it.”

Jon sighed tiredly. “Yeah. _Talk_.”

Damian opened his mouth to make a short retort, most likely about how Jon was acting unprofessional, but he was stopped by Mar’i’s tight grip on his bicep. “Damian,” she muttered through gritted teeth. The rest of the team looked at one another with frustrated glances, then slowly trickled out of the room.

“Beloved-“

Mar’i began speaking before he could finish. “They’re right, Damian. It was rude, what you did.”

Mar’i grew up with selfless parents, whom were more than willing to sacrifice themselves for their team. They knew the mission was never above the team. Damian was not her father, though, despite having such a strong connection with Dick—no, he was acting like his own father. “You are not Batman, Dami,” she muttered, voice softer and yet still managing to be sharp. Damian could never know how she and her mother could do that.

Damian clenched his jaw. “They know the consequences of the job-“

“They trusted you and you broke it. You broke their trust,” Mar’i argued with with that vicious tone back. And he could tell what she was actually saying.

_You broke my trust._

Mar’i felt her hair begin to light up, a bright purple that always amazed Damian during intimate times but only made him tense more.

_You broke my trust._

Damian shook himself. _Focus_. “We cannot depend on each other,” he argued weakly. At least, in his own terms.

Mar’i gave him a look that resembled one Richard would give when he was doing something he didn’t approve of. Damian could never tell if it was out of sympathy, sadness, anger, or all of the above.

Was it bad that Damian always hoped it was anger?

He could fight anger. Anyone could.

“You’re fucking ridiculous, Damian,” Mar’i bit out, and some relief poured out of Damian. _Anger_.

His inner composure, however, dropped when he heard Mar’i’s next words.

“I know you grew up trying to kill yourself to make someone you loved happy, but that’s not how other people view love.”

Damian paused, nostrils flaring. At this point he couldn’t tell if he was angry ( _or sad. Or self-pitying. Or all of the above_ ). When given no answer from her partner, Mar’i continued, feeling her heart twinge with each passing moment that Damian was staring at her. “I know that...Bruce always said the mission was first. But when you have a team—when you have someone you love on the line...”

Mar’i closed her eyes and sighed. Knew Damian was too stubborn to truly listen to anyone, but she also knew he loved her. He loved her enough to listen to her. She wasn’t anyone.

“You need to follow your heart, Dami. You need to allow yourself to feel and act on those feelings. Not everyone is indestructible, and you cannot replace someone when you love and lose them.” Mar’i would know. Damian should know.

Mar’i had always, always had a fear of death. Of her loved ones being lost to the lifestyle they had. To sacrificing themselves because they may feel the need to, or felt the selfish need to battle love rather than succumb to it.

And she could tell by the look on Damian’s face that he was thinking of how naive she was. But she never thought of herself as that. When she grew up past adolescence, she knew that she was never naive—just compassionate. Someone society views as naive.

Mar’i, frankly, thinks that mindset is bullshit.

“Why do you think we have a team in the first place, Damian? Hm? To fucking share secrets and gossip about the League?” She could tell her hair was getting hotter. “No, Robin.” Damian’s heart stuttered. “My family made this team to help each other. Not to hurt each other, you fucking prick.”

Damian’s body suddenly felt weak, and his body felt out of place in this world. A ghost watching Mar’i stare at him expectantly for an answer while he couldn’t control his mouth.

The worst part was that he knew Mar’i was right. She was reciting something her father was told her. Has told him. When he heard Grayson’s voice echoing through his head, felt the comfort he got simply from being in his and Mar’i’s presence, he knew what to do.

This is it.

Without a single syllable uttered from his mouth, he marched miserably to the living room of the Titan’s base. When he entered the room, everyone had, predictably, been talking to one another and—even more likely—been listening on his and Mar’i’s argument.

He opened his mouth when everyone turned to glare at him, their gazes sharp and unforgiving. But Damian knew them. He knew his team was stubborn, but also willing to get along with one another. “I apologize,” he said stiffly. Lian raised a single eyebrow, as if testing him. He sighed to himself. He could now feel Mar’i’s strong presence behind him, and knew he had to continue. “I am...sorry for not working well as a team member.”

Lian’s eyebrow dropped, her eyes becoming softer and more compassionate. “Okay,” she said eventually, and Damian couldn’t decipher how she felt even if he tried.

Jon and Zachary were standing with their arms crossed, and Damian could tell by the looks on their faces that they were wondering if they could forgive him. Damian didn’t know where the other Titans were, but knew the word would get out like most other drama.

Before Damian could mull over the possibilities of that, he felt a pull of his hand behind him. He turned to face his girlfriend, who was wearing a soft expression: compassionate eyes, a smiling tilt of her plump lips, and mellowed out hair. Her hair had calmed down while Damian was apologizing, no question about it.

Damian left to his room, knowing Mar’i was going to follow him and not really caring. She cares for him when he doesn’t need it. Or ask for it.

Mar’i closed the bedroom door behind her, the sound of the click barely audible. She slowly walked up to Damian, then, without saying anything, began meticulously taking off his mask. It landed on the bed when she threw it in that general direction.

“Without apologizing they would’ve hated me,” Damian murmured,and Mar’i felt herself melt. This was Damian. The over-thinker, the selfless young man, the caring person she knew he always was and would be.

“I don’t know it they would’ve hated you,” Mar’i replied teasingly. “They certainly would’ve held a grudge, though.”

_I would’ve held a grudge_ , he read in Mar’i’s words.

Damian rolled his eyes and felt a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. His body felt lighter, after apologizing. During the mission, he felt the pull of guilt tug at him while he escaped the facility, where his teammates were still collecting data. He was coward, sometimes, and hated himself for it. “Father would’ve done the same thing-“ he began, but was interrupted.

“I know, Damian,” Mar’i said frustratedly. “But you’re not Bruce.”

Damian wanted to scream. Because he had been told that he needed to be Bruce all his childhood. And now. Now he realized how much of a mistake that mindset was. It was toxic.

“I’m sorry, Beloved,” he said instead, his body language oozing guilt, and Mar’i’s expression softened once again.

Without any hate in her voice, she replied, “I love you too.”

* * *

They ended up making out on his bed, which was something that happened a lot in their relationship. Damian needed something to ground him, to prove his love to Mar’i in ways that weren’t only verbal.

Mar’i knew him like the back of her hand, and she knew that it was...difficult for him to express in ways other than kinetically. She loved him for it, though. Loved that he gave her gifts of symbolism rather than monetary value. Loved that he gave everything in their relationship, even going past his own comforts to help her. He was selfless lover, and for that she knew he was a selfless person.

His earlier actions had proven otherwise, and when she heard his comm. click off, she knew a part of her trust had been shattered.

But when he apologized...

Mar’i, again, knew him like the back of her hand. She knew it was nearly impossible for him to do that. To stand in front of his entire team—who Mar’i knew he cared for despite his measly protests—and admit his weakness in how he approaches the mission. He had admitted more than he had said. He had admitted that he wasn’t the all-knowing person that much of the team think of the Bats. He was a human. He made irrational decisions.

Mar’i still needed time to full forgive him, but she knew he would prove her otherwise. In later missions, she knew he wouldn’t leave the team to fend for themselves. She knew he was too caring to not.

* * *

Mar’i woke up the next morning in her boyfriend’s bed, sore and sated in a way that wasn’t just because of the sex.

She heard a faint groan next to her and chuckled. “Morning, Handsome,” she teased, pointing out Damian’s terrible bed head.

He blinked a few times, adjusting to the real world, then his eyes fell onto Mar’i. They were half-lidded and content, something she’s seen more and more these past couple of years.

It’s something that makes her chest flutter with pride.

“I’m gonna go get breakfast,” Mar’i said suddenly. “Wanna come?”

“‘Lready came last night,” Damian tiredly joked.

Mar’i snickered. “Trust me. I know.”

The morning was usually quiet for the Titans. They were growing teens, and to be quite honest, despised mornings. Especially a morning after a daunting mission such as last night’s one.

Damian was nervous with the prospect of having to face everyone after last night’s mission. He was ashamed for acting like his father and not himself.

He felt a resistance on his bicep while he walked stiffly to the kitchen, and knew Mar’i was once again caring. He turned around to face her, and was met with the sight of a beautiful Mar’i Grayson.

“They love you, Dami.” And somehow it always feels as though she can read his mind.

He nodded once.

“Love you,” Damian murmured quietly, and Mar’i’s smile made his heart skip.

His nerves went haywire.

However, when Mar’i and Damian emerged from the hallway, they saw the kitchen filled with their teammates—cooking, joking, sleepily sipping from the coffee mugs. The superhero logos on the cups never failed to make Mar’i laugh and Damian secretly proud.

It made Damian’s heart stutter once again, but in a comforting way. He knew now that he got to see the people he loved ( _his equals, though he would never admit it to them. Their heads are already too big_ ) were willing to forgive him. To forgive him for being willing to put the mission above everyone. Above himself. Above Mar’i.

They forgave and forgot in a way that Damian so rarely got to experience.

As both leaders of the Teen Titans looked around the kitchen, taking note of their teammates, they knew it would be okay.

They would be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Did you like it? Leave in the comments below! 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and have an absolutely amazing day! All love <3


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